Chapter 14 - The Forged Signature
|
The following morning, sunlight poured into the legal offices of Vandermir Enterprises.
Dela sat behind a massive oak desk, dressed in a professional charcoal maternity dress. On the desk lay the original county coroner's file from the night of Elias's death—the file containing the mysterious autopsy refusal form she had received under her apartment door weeks ago.
Gus walked into the office, carrying two mugs of fresh coffee. He set one down in front of her.
"What are you looking at?" Gus asked.
"The signature on this refusal form," Dela said, pointing to the yellowed paper under her lamp. "I had a handwriting expert examine it an hour ago. It’s a sophisticated forgery, but the ink composition matches a vintage Montblanc pen."
Gus’s eyes narrowed. "Victor Sinclair carried a vintage Montblanc."
"He didn't just order the hit on Interstate 90," Dela deduced, her legal mind piecing the puzzle together. "Victor bribed the night coroner at the county morgue to forge my signature so no official autopsy would be performed to detect the chemical saboteur used on Elias's brakes."
Suddenly, the landline on Dela’s desk rang sharp and loud.
She picked it up. "Delilah Hawthorne."
"Mrs. Hawthorne," a trembling male voice whispered through the receiver. "You need to leave the Meridian tower right now."
Dela stiffened. "Who is this?"
"It's Arthur Vance," the lawyer rasped from his holding cell at the federal precinct. "Victor knows he's going to prison for life. He just activated his contingency protocol. He paid a local syndicate boss named Marco Reyes to clean up all loose ends—starting with you."
Dela’s heart skipped a beat. "Reyes?"
May you like
"Reyes's men are already on their way to your West Side apartment," Vance warned frantically. "And they know about your sister!"
Dela dropped the phone, horror washing over her face. "My apartment... Nell is there!"
